Practice notes, April 6

The UTSA offense enjoyed another productive morning during spring drills Friday at Farris Stadium. So productive, in fact, that head coach Larry Coker implored the defense to return the favor when practice resumes next week.

“We’re challenging the defense pretty good,” he said. “As the head coach, you can’t be happy. If you’re the offensive coordinator, it’s like ‘yeah, yeah.’ But you can’t be happy if you’re the head coach because somebody is getting mauled.”

Such has been the defense’s fate in recent weeks, a stark contrast from the opening scrimmage in which the offense scored one field goal. The Roadrunners followed up with a slew of big plays in the second scrimmage, then another good week of practice capped by a workout in which starting quarterback Eric Soza and backup Ryan Polite engineered touchdowns on consecutive two-minute drills.

“We’ve got some playmakers,” Coker said. “That’s what I see — playmakers making plays. The protection is much better, and we’re much more physical. When we were first out here, we were dropping passes, overthrows and underthrows. Now we’re going 10 or 15 minutes without a drop. That gives you a chance when you’ve got pressure.”

Soza was masterful against the first-team defense, capping a 7-play drive with a 5-yard touchdown to tight end David Morgan. Walk-on receiver Seth Grubb started the campaign with arguably the best play of the day, a leaping catch along the sideline for a healthy gain.

Polite came on for the second possession, marching the Roadrunners in scoring position before Josiah Monroe, on a double pass, hit Cole Hicks falling out of the back of the end zone. It was a decidedly different result from Saturday’s scrimmage, when Monroe underthrew a sure touchdown on the same play.

The touchdowns followed a handful of other impressive plays during earlier work, including Soza’s TD pass to Quincy Kibbett and another long TD run by David Glasco II behind blocks from Cody Harris and Josh Walker.

In contrast to UTSA’s offensive success was another tough day for the secondary, which struggled without the injured Darrien Starling at cornerback.

“That’s definitely a concern,” Coker said. “We’ve got some help coming in this summer. And of course having Starling back will make a big difference.”

Notes

Coker said he wasn’t happy that Marcus Wright’s transfer from Georgia Tech to UTSA has fallen through. Wright, who rushed for more than 7,000 yards at Reagan High but played sparingly at Tech, said he plans to play at the University of the Incarnate Word after admissions issues and the departure of former offensive coordinator Travis Bush sabotaged his move to UTSA.

“There’s a lot of disappointment,” Coker said. “He’s a good player and he would have helped us. I think Incarnate Word got a good player and a good kid. But you have to coach what you have, not what we don’t have.”

Mitigating that loss is the apparent improvement of returnees Evans Okotcha, Brandon Armstrong and Glasco, all of whom have drawn praise from Coker this spring.

“They’re doing the things they’re coached to do, which is make the tough run inside,” he said. “You do that, and the big plays will come. They all look much, much better.”